


Scientific Investigations

by captainjaybird



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 17:17:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2033358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainjaybird/pseuds/captainjaybird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cosima Niehaus is just starting to adjust to her life as a graduate student when she gets an email from a woman named Beth Childs. Suddenly, she’s looking at the world with a whole new view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scientific Investigations

The air is crisp and cool, the leaves are starting to turn on the trees, and Cosima knows she needs to enjoy this nice fall day before Minneapolis turns into a frigid wasteland. She’s walking alone, having only just transferred from UC Berkley because UMinnesota had a better microbiology program. The brunette feels lucky to have been able to bring all her research with her, and tells herself it’s worth the loneliness of being at a new school. She misses Shawna, her best friend who she’d told anything and everything to. They’d gotten so close so fast Cosima could hardly believe it. Now, though, she feels quite alone in the world.

She’s only halfway to her class when her phone goes off with a _bingggg_.

“I’ve got mail.” Cosima laughs at her own joke and pulls open her gmail. It’s from echilds@torontopd.net. “Huh.” The student doesn’t recognize the sender’s address at all. _What in the holy heck does someone from Toronto have to do with me?_ Curious, she taps the message open. It reads:

Cosima Niehaus,

We’ve never met before, but my name is Elizabeth (Beth) Childs. I work with the Toronto police department and have uncovered information relating to you, and myself. Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. However, it is very important you contact me ASAP.

—Beth Childs

Cosima blinks. She feels a vague fear about her little smoking habit having been found out, but dismisses it as irrational. The cop _had_ said she wasn’t in trouble, and she’s pretty certain the Toronto PD would have no jurisdiction in the United States. Still, the message does seem a little ominous. The other woman had attached her phone number to the email, but Cosima decides she’ll do some digging before she calls her. She’s a scientist, and she likes to have solid data before making her decisions.

With a start, the petite woman realizes she’s late for class. “Shit!” she curses, and hurries towards the lecture hall. Beth Childs and her cryptic message would have to wait.

 

To her annoyance, Cosima finds herself distracted all throughout class. It’s a small graduate class, and she feels embarrassed when her professor asks her a question and she has to mumble back that she hadn’t been quite following the discussion. The student sinks lower in her seat after the teacher gives her a stern look. _I definitely need to take care of this soon,_ she thinks, _because this is really not cool._ When class lets out, Cosima hangs back and apologizes to her professor before heading out the door.

It seems like the usually quick walk to her apartment takes forever. Cosima usually likes to appreciate the landscaping and architecture of the college, but she doesn’t even notice it today. Her head is buzzing with unanswered questions. _Who is this woman? What does she want? How did she find me?_

Cosima walks into her new home, which she had already made comfortably lived in (some might say ‘messy’). The scientist pulls out her laptop, smiling a little at her new double helix laptop cover. It’s _totally_ rad. “Alright, Beth,” she says, “what’s up with you?” She starts with Google. It may not have enough data for her academic papers, but the brunette bets it’ll be enough for this. She types ‘Elizabeth Childs Toronto’ into the search bar.

A couple different responses pop up. The one for the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon doesn’t tell her much, other than the fact that the other woman could definitely outrun her. _Not surprising, really. She’s police._ The article Beth wrote for her school paper about the stupidity of spending a thousand dollars on a prom dress is interesting, but not especially helpful. The cop doesn’t even appear to have a Facebook page. Cosima sighs as she clinks on the link announcing Toronto PD’s youngest ever detective. _This probably won’t have jack either,_ she thinks.

“Oh holy shit,” Cosima breathes, scrolling down. She’s looking at herself in a detective’s coat with straightened hair. The resemblance is _uncanny_. The other woman even has the same prominent canines in her smile. “This is too complex.”

Cosima pulls out a little container from her desk drawer. This requires some out-of-the-box thinking. She rolls a joint, barely paying attention, the movements automatic by now. _How’s this even possible?_ she wonders. _I have a doppelganger? What kind of alternate universe shit is this?_ The student lights up and takes a long drag. Exhaling, she runs a hand through her hair.

“Okay, okay. Think. What’s this all about?” Cosima leans back in her chair, speculative. _My parents would have told me if I had a twin. I’m an only child. But I was an IVF baby. Could they have made a mistake at the clinic?_ She considers it. She’s never looked much like either of her parents. Her mother is blonde with green eyes and her father is tall with an angular nose and a stocky build.

“Shit,” Cosima whispers to herself. “Shit, shit.” She doesn’t want to even contemplate it. But this Elizabeth Childs looks far too much like her for it to be a coincidence. Cosima has studied genetics, and the probability that they’re unrelated is too small to even bother calculating.

“Fuck.”

Cosima turns her phone over and over in her hand, more aware of the texture than usual. She breathes in deeply and exhales through her nose. If she wants any answers at all, she needs to call the detective. _But do I want to know?_

It’s a stupid question. Cosima is a scientist. She’s devoted her whole life to finding answers. Just because it’s a mystery about herself doesn’t change that. If anything, it makes it a little more exciting. The student punches in Beth’s number. _I’m committed now,_ she thinks. _Hell or high water._

“Hello?”

It takes Cosima a second to answer. The woman’s voice sounds _just like hers,_ with a slight Canadian accent. _What is going on?_

“Hello? Who is this?”

“Uh, shit, sorry, I’m Cosima. Cosima Niehaus. You sent me an email.”

“Oh, good.” The cop sounds relieved. “I was afraid you wouldn’t call. I guess you already know I’m Beth Childs.”

“Yeah, I do. And I didn’t know if I was going to call, until I looked you up. Why do you look just like me?” Cosima knows she’s played her hand early, but she doesn’t care. This is getting too freaky, and the longer she keeps hearing her voice coming from Beth, the weirder it gets.

Beth sucks in a breath. “You’ve done your research. I guess investigation is in our genes.” She laughs, but it doesn’t sound happy. Cosima doesn’t get the joke.

“So what are we? Twins? That has to be the answer, right, long-lost sisters?”

“I wish it was that simple. What I’m about to tell you seems far-fetched, but you have to believe me. We’re—we’re clones.”

This time it’s Cosima who laughs. “Yeah, good one. Look, I’m in EvoDevo—evolutionary development—and I know there’s no _way_ we’re there yet, let alone almost thirty years ago.”

“I can prove it. Another one of us, Katja, contacted me two months ago. She’s in contact with three others. I don’t have any samples from them, but I can send you one of mine. You’re a scientist. I’m sure you could tell we’re genetically identical.”

“Sure I could. But if it’s just you and me, I’m still going with identical twins. This is crazy. I’m not on this train.”

Beth sighs. “It’ll take a while to get the samples from the Europeans. But I can send you copies of their documents. Will that be enough?”

Cosima considers. “Maybe,” she allows. “I’ll run the tests.”

“Good. I’ll express mail them to you. They should be there in a couple days.”

“Deal. Talk to you later.” Cosima hangs up. “Holy cats. When’d I land in a sci-fi movie?” She settles back in her chair. She doesn’t want to believe any of this, but something in her gut seems to be already starting to accept it.

 

The samples from Beth come two days later, right on time. _If she really is my clone,_ Cosima thinks, _she doesn’t have my lateness problem._ She can’t analyze Beth’s sample in her apartment, so she pulls out the envelope full of papers, and spreads them out on her desk.

“Oh my god…”

More women with her face. And they all have a birthdate within a month of hers. She notices with some bemusement that she appears to be the oldest. The women seems to come from many different countries, and Cosima can’t even begin to imagine the scale of this project, if that’s what it is. This is impossible, but the evidence is right there in front of her. The documents look too accurate to be forged.

“Shit. _Shit._ ” Cosima needs to get to the lab. She wants answers, and she wants them now. Pulling on a light jacket, she grabs the hair sample and heads out the door.

 

Scott’s in the lab, and Cosima gives him a distracted nod as she heads to her work station. She doesn’t know him that well yet, but he seems like a nice guy. Hard worker, too. Cosima grabs some supplies, grateful the university has a well-stocked and well-equipped lab.

The student adds genomic DNA purification resin to Beth’s and one of her own samples to being isolating the DNA. _The next part will require patience_ she thinks as she sets up the samples to be incubated in high heat for an hour. While she waits, Cosima pulls out her laptop. It’s time to research cloning.

She starts with the basic, reading about how Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned in ’96. Learning about the ewe’s health complications, Cosima feels uneasy. If she _is_ a human clone, could she be a victim of genetic defects too? Exiting the page, the scientist reads about human organs grown from stem cells. It’s not quite the same, as it’s exploiting the cells’ pluripotency rather than true cloning, but she figures it’s relevant and the closest she’ll get to learning anything about human cloning itself.

The timer on Cosima’s phone goes off. She mixes each sample in a vortex, incubates them for ten more minutes, and puts each in a centrifuge at top speed for two minutes. After that, she has a sample for her and for Beth in separate test tubes, ready to sequence.

Sequencing the entire genome would take days, so Cosima simplifies things and selects five sections to compare. If they’re all identical, it’s probable enough that they’re clones. Taking a deep breath, she settles down to work.

With each new identical sequence, Cosima feels her shock growing. _Last one, last chance,_ she thinks as she begins work on the final one. Her eyes widen as she finishes. Identical. Clones.

“Holy shit. Oh my god. Holy shit.”

Cosima feels lightheaded until her mind kicks into gear and starts spinning with possibilities. Clones. _Human_ clones. This is incredible. This is amazing! It’s a scientific mirable. It’s beyond anything she’s ever dreamed, and she’s up close and personal. Cosima turns her hands over, looking at them. They seem new, like she’s never really seen them before, and the clone wiggles her fingers. _A miracle,_ she thinks again. _My whole world just changed. **The** whole world just changed. _ The research possibilities are endless.

She needs to call Beth. The brunette glances at Scott. Outside it is, then. With shaking hands, she dials Beth’s number.

“Cosima?”

“We’re clones!” She can’t keep the excitement out of her voice. “Human clones! It’s impossible but it’s true! The science is just, I can’t even imagine, the implications that this has—”

“You can’t tell anyone,” Beth cuts her off. “Cosima, this is dangerous. Human cloning is _illegal._ We don’t even know who made us, or what they want. I’m investigating it, but the trail is cold.”

“Okay, I can’t tell anyone.” Cosima waves one hand, even though the other woman, her clone, can’t see her. “But I can study this—study us. I can’t do what you do, uncovering conspiracies, holy shit, but I can do the science. The science is kinda my thing, you know?”

“I was hoping for that. I’m going to mail you a phone, just for clone business. And I’m working on getting you blood samples from the Europeans. I’ve also been in close contact with another clone in Toronto. Her name’s Alison.”

“Neato,” Cosima says. “I can’t wait to start. I couldn’t have come up with more exciting research if I _tried._ ”

“I’m glad you’re handling it well,” Beth replies. “I’ll keep in touch. I’ve got to go now. My partner’s coming.” She hangs up.

Cosima heads back to the lab. She has a lot of research to do, but she thinks she’ll take a day. Her world _did_ just get rocked.

“Damn. Human clones,” she repeats. “Just, human clones.”

 

It takes Cosima a long time to fall asleep that night. She can’t stop her mind from imagining everything that could come from this. The clone doesn’t even know where to _start_ investigating her own biology. Tomorrow is a brand new day, and Cosima dreams of scientists and sheep.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I love writing Cosima, her excitement about the world is infectious. I'm a biology student (or will be when I am able to go back to school), and I did look up how to sequence DNA from hair, so that bit is accurate! I kinda skirted around writing high!Cosima because I don't smoke since it gives me severe, terrifying hallucinations. The tactile bit with the phone was supposed to help imply that, though. I hope you all enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing!


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